Apex Book Company

This past spring, Apex had a subscriber drive that turned into a promotional frenzy. Authors and editors were offering free books, free swag, and free humiliation if sales reached certain points. The people responded. Lifetime subscriptions were moving faster than I expected and I soon felt like swallowing my own words: I had pledged to dye my hair green if the right number of lifetime subs were sold. Twenty lifetime subscriptions – I didn’t think it was going to happen, not in the amount of time the ApexBorg had set.

It did.

So, I began a search for green hair dye. Not the cheap paint on dye that washes out in the rain (or runs across your forehead while you’re sweating at a baseball tournament), not the ‘fudge’ dye that is blended and applied by professionals. Just good, old fashioned goth/punk hair dye. Naturally, no one locally had anything except the green paint-on dye. A search of the city began, with no results. A lot of other colors could be had, but I wanted green. I had promised green. Finally, after posting a moan and whine to the old Apex forum, someone there mentioned that Manic Panic had several shades of green and that they could be found on Ebay.

Huzzah! No really, I made a noise that kinda sounded like that.

First, I checked the Manic Panic home site for payment options and shipping times, and scoped out the color selection. Electric Lizard was too ‘electric’, Enchanted Forest was too dark. Ah, they have a perfect shade! Green Envy. Perfect!

A thorough perusal of the Ebay site later, and only one seller had Green Envy, and would not, under any circumstances, send out of the U.S. Fine. I had my brother check out the goth club/store in the city, just in case they brought in the green. (Dye, people, dye…sheesh) No go, still.

Another search of Ebay and I found the wonderful folks of The Garment District. Not only did they have Green Envy, they accepted Paypal AND ship internationally. Timing was serendipitous as my Paypal account had just been supplied with a Dye-Fund. I purchased the Green Envy, knowing Apex readers everywhere would be just that within a few weeks. Green with envy. Well, okay – I was psyching myself up. As I was finalizing, a picture of Manic Panic Midnight Blue caught my attention, and I bought it, too. It never hurts to have something punky to throw into your hair in the blink of… well, if you have two hours and an extra bleaching kit lying around.

The waiting began. I knew it was impossible, but I checked the mail the next day anyway. Two days later, still nothing – although I knew if it had even reached customs by that point, it would have another week to be processed. Then… one brave American reminded me I’d placed the order the evening before Independence Day. D’oh!

Eventually (eleven days later), I decided I wasn’t going to think about it anymore, I wasn’t going to stress about it. It’d get here when it got here and then I’d be green. Later that day, I checked the mail and there it was. The parcel card of my dreams that, when turned in at the desk, produced a small box. My heart fell, it wasn’t the dye! But, it was a The Garment District label on the front… would two dye packages fit into such a small box? Yes!

Realistically, that was the fastest shipping I’ve had on products I’ve purchased from folks at Ebay that aren’t in Canada. The item was shipped on the 8^th of July, and I received it (having gone through Customs and all) on the 15^th. The Garment District folks have an amazing outfit, check them out – http://www.garmentdistrict.com.

I rushed to pick up the bleaching kit – and had to settle for a streaking kit, instead. Grabbed the kid (my youngest) and we dashed off to my mother’s for a night of hair dressing. When my daughter and I went to the baseball championships, both of us had green streaks. It all worked out, you see… the Miami girls have always worn green uniforms. ;)

And so, we finally have pictures for everyone as well. Here you go – the cranky editor with green hair. Not so bright in the pictures as it is in the sun, let me tell you. I hope you’re all happy now.

Pssst – I am – I like it!